By Charlie Choo - LiveSoccerTV Staff.
It wasn’t a high-scoring week with the Everton-Aston Villa game yielding six goals as not only as one of the more thrilling games for fans but also for football fantasy players around the world. In fact as far as the fantasy players were concerned it was the game of the week.
At one stage, the 19th placed Aston Villa looked to be on the verge of an upset win – that would have taken them out of the relegation zone – but Marouane Fellaini’s double-strike allowed Everton to split the points.
This was after Christian Benteke’s brace had allowed Aston Villa to go 3-1 up by the 61st minute. Before this game, Felliani hadn’t scored in EPL since December 1, which could have meant that many of the fantasy football managers would have probably given him away.
If you had both Felliani and Benteke in your sides – two players who may not be at the top of buying charts – then you sure are a football fantasy wizard!
The other stunner of the weekend was Moussa Sissoko’s brilliant brace that helped Newcastle shock Chelsea 3-2. In only his second match in the EPL Sissoko is an unknown quantity. He had an excellent start to his EPL career last week when he set up the first goal of Newcastle’s win over Aston Villa.
And if fantasy managers had any doubts about picking him up as a long-term investment, he dispelled all of them with the twin-strikes against Chelsea to give the handful who had selected him, much to cheer about.
Wayne Rooney continued his good form with a goal but followed it up with a late yellow-card against Fulham while Steven Gerrard’s booming drill past the hapless Joe Hart followed his assist for Daniel Sturridge’s third goal in Liverpool colours in the EPL. Unfortunately for Gerrard fans and fantasy owners, there was a yellow card against the 32-year old veteran that would have reduced the sheen off his performance – and points off his fantasy pickers.
Six of the teams that featured over the weekend kept clean sheets with only the QPR-Norwich game ending goalless. Adel Taraabt missed a penalty for QPR and that save would have earned Mark Bunn fantasy owners a few extra points. Arsenal’s late transfer buy-in Monreal helped his side keep a clean sheet too against Stoke but the most surprising result of the week was Swansea’s 0-1 loss at the hands of West Ham.
For a team that has won only one game since December 1 and kept one clean sheet since November 20, keeping the likes of Michu, Jonathon de Guzman and the likes at bay was an achievement. So while Michu-owners will feel the pinch of a continual goal-drought from the Spanish mid-fielder, if you had a West Ham defender despite their recent profligacy as a defensive unit you would have earned a few points here. Some of the other performers of the 25th round of games, worth a mention, are Julio Cesar (QPR goal-keeper, clean sheet), Leighton Baines (Everton defender, assist), Jimmy Kebe (Reading mid-fielder, two goals) and Gareth Bale (Tottenham Hotspurs mid-fielder, one goal).
